1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates generally to an illumination mechanism for a mobile device and, more particularly, to controlling the backlight for a mobile communication device by way of detecting changes in movement of the mobile communication device.
2. Copyright & Trademark Notices
A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains material, which is subject to copyright protection. The owner has no objection to the facsimile reproduction by any one of the patent document or the patent disclosure, as it appears in the Patent and Trademark Office patent file or records, but otherwise reserves all copyrights whatsoever.
Certain marks referenced herein may be common law or registered trademarks of third parties affiliated or unaffiliated with the applicant or the assignee. Use of these marks is for providing an enabling disclosure by way of example and shall not be construed to limit the scope of this invention to material associated with such marks.
3. Related Art
Handheld communication and computing devices such as cellular phones and personal digital assistants (PDAs) are generally equipped with a lighting mechanism that is used to illuminate the device's keypad or screen. This lighting mechanism is typically referred to as a “backlight” and consists of a light emitting diode (LED) positioned in the back of the keypad or the screen.
The currently implemented backlight systems either constantly remain on while the phone is turned on, or are turned on as soon as the user interacts with the device, for example, when a button on the keypad is pressed. Some backlight systems are complemented with a shutoff timer that can be set by the user to turn off the backlight, if the user does not interact with the device for a predetermined period.
While this shutoff timer is useful in preserving battery power, it is problematic in that it requires the user to press an arbitrary key on the device's keypad to activate the backlight. At times, pressing an arbitrary key may result in performance of an unintended function in addition to activating the backlight, because certain keys on the keypad are programmed to perform special functions (e.g., establishing a connection to the internet, speed dialing, instant messaging, etc.).
It is therefore understandable that a user may become frustrated or inconvenienced if an unintended function is performed, when the user only means to turn the backlight on. Further, if the device is in a lock mode, pressing the keys on the keypad may not activate the backlight unless the lock code is fully entered. This is problematic because typically a user is not even able to see the keys or the unlocking instructions on the device's display when the backlight is off.
As such, a system and method is needed that can overcome the above shortcomings by activating the backlight and/or unlocking the device without requiring the user to press a key on the keypad.